Franci Neely, a Houston socialite and the ex-wife of Astros owner Jim Crane, was recorded harassing a black family for taking photos on a scenic boulevard in celebration of their daughter's first birthday. Neely had her unleashed Pomeranian with her, and zero shoes.

Kelyn and Isaiah Allen hired a professional photographer to take pics of their baby daughter Anja. The couple had set up blankets and brought a few balloons to the North Boulevard in Houston, a picturesque esplanade frequented by individuals wishing to capture a special memory.

However, as the Allens were photographing their daughter, Franci Neely became angered that they were blocking the sidewalk. In a now-viral video, the barefoot Neely is seen with her leash-less dog, approaching the family and screaming at them for taking pictures on the esplanade. According to Kelyn, Neely passed several groups similarly taking photos to approach Kelyn and her family, yelling, "You are trampling the grass that we pay for."

Sexual harassment, sexism and pregnancy-related discrimination are rampant in the garment industry, a damning report by Human Rights Watch has found.

The £1.9 trillion apparel industry employs millions of workers globally – most of whom are women – and spans from garment and footwear factories to cotton fields and actual shops.

While India, Pakistan and many other countries have specific laws governing sexual harassment at work, 59 countries do not have any specific legal remedies for sexual harassment in the workplace.

But the report found even where there are laws governing sexual harassment at work, they often are not properly implemented.

Workers in India and Pakistan told researchers many employees are not aware of their own rights or of the responsibilities of their employers under sexual harassment laws and have not had any training at work.

Chicago prosecutors are investigating a VHS tape of what appears to be, according to lawyer Michael Avenatti, singer R. Kelly raping a girl.

“My client knows the identity of the girl and R. Kelly,” Avenatti, who previously represented Stormy Daniels, told CNN. “He identified the two of them on the videotape. He worked for and has known R. Kelly for decades and he met the girl on a number of occasions. Avenatti turned the tape over to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago last weekend, CNN reports.

The University of Southern California and a doctor recently employed there were hit with a lawsuit from six gay and bisexual men who accuse the physician of sexual battery, gender violence, sexual harassment, negligence, and fraud.

Dr. Dennis A. Kelly, who retired from USC two years ago, denies the claims, telling the Los Angeles Times that he always acted "professionally and without any other motive."

The plaintiffs allege Kelly targeted gay and bi male students, subjecting them to "demeaning and derogatory" terms and inquiring if they used sex toys and watched internet porn. The accusers — some of which attended USC between 2009 and 2014 — also said they were subjected to "intrusive and medically unnecessary rectal examinations."

A white Detroit police officer has been demoted from his rank of corporal and reassigned from his precinct after posting Snapchat videos mocking a Black woman who walked home in subzero temperatures after having her car impounded.

Steele thought it was a good idea to pull up his Snapchat and record footage of the woman walking away as he and his colleague start quipping, “Priceless,” “Walk of shame…in the cold,” and “Bye, Felicia.” The videos were first uncovered by news station WXYZ. To make matters worse, he used premade filters on the social media app, including “What Black girl magic looks like,” and “Celebrating Black History Month in the captured footage.

Allegations that four black middle school girls in upstate New York were strip-searched has sparked calls for a state investigation.

The four 12-year-old students and their parents say the girls were questioned and forced to disrobe by the assistant principal and school nurse at East Middle School in Binghamton on Jan. 15 on suspicion of drug possession because they were acting "giddy."

The school district announced this week that it has hired an independent firm to review the allegations.

Police in Toronto are seeking information on multiple incidents of alleged sexual and physical assaults at a private all-boys Catholic school after videos of two of the alleged assaults surfaced on social media earlier this week.

St. Michael’s College School in Toronto has expelled eight students and suspended one after videos of two separate incidents — one which involved allegations of sexual assault — were circulated online.

Toronto police said Friday that its investigation into one of the incidents — in which a student was allegedly sexually assaulted with a broomstick by a group of boys in a locker room — has opened a “number of occurrences involving incidents of alleged assaultive and sexually assaultive behavior” at the school.

This year, two movies about conversion therapy (or the idea that homosexuality and queerness are curable diseases) have hit the big screen to critical acclaim. Boy Erased, based on the memoir of the same title by Garrard Conley, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, based on the novel by Emily Danforth, tell the stories of two teenagers from religious communities whose families enroll them in programs that promise to rid them of their same-sex attraction.

As someone from a religious background, I was moved by how realistic both films were about the pain of growing up in a community that rejects a major facet of your identity. But what I truly found to be one of the most emotional moments of Boy Erased was, in the film's final moments, when modern day conversion therapy facts started to appear on-screen. The film says that 700,000 LGBTQ people have been subjected to conversion therapy.

And it’s entirely true— conversion therapy is a reality. It’s still fully legally in 36 states, and strains of it run through too many religious communities to count. It's estimated that 20,000 LGBTQ teens will be subject to conversion therapy by a healthcare provider, and nearly 60,000 will be subject to "treatment" from a religious counselor before they turn 18.

Jay couldn’t wait to attend the Naked Unicorn Party, the BYOB play party capping off Butchfest, a 2013 Dallas festival celebrating “lesbians and queers who identify as tomboys, butches, studs, bois, transmen genderqueers, two-spirits, and all other identities masculine of center.” He had attended a few other queer sex events before, but as a 42-year-old trans man with a limp, his trans identity and physical disability made it difficult for him to sexually engage others.

Others often assume Jay’s disability puts him in chronic pain, but it doesn’t. And as someone who identifies as “70 percent femme/female-attracted and 30 percent butch/masculine-attracted,” he doesn’t feel welcome in queer sex spaces. At one sex party, the host pointed to him as proof of the event’s inclusivity. As a result, he often feels physically and sexually awkward at these events and usually ends up watching as a voyeur.

Growing up in a small, culturally conservative, Christian town in middle Georgia, I felt obligated to convince myself that I was straight, even though I knew that I had an underlying conflict with my sexuality that stemmed from getting caught in a same-sex experiment with a girl in my neighborhood when I was 7.

While her family responded to the incident with outrage, mine responded with mere shock and discomfort ? passing it off as a one-time experience between two friends. I attempted avoiding my sexuality after this experiment, though I constantly found myself suffering through elementary school crushes on girls. This led to me continuously returning home holding in this secret that slowly began to unfold ? I was into girls.

In December 2014, a tractor-trailer traveling down Interstate 71 in Ohio struck and killed Leelah Alcorn.

Alcorn, who identified as transgender, had posted a suicide note on her Tumblr in which she described her isolation, desperation, and depression—feelings she blamed, in part, on the “conversion therapy” her conservative Christian parents forced her to undergo. Alcorn’s parents believed their “sick” child could be forcibly turned back into a boy and “cured” of her attraction to males.

As New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer headed out for a jog in Queens last Sunday, something out of the ordinary quickly caught his eye: an anti-immigrant poster geared toward anyone who might be sympathetic to white nationalist messaging.

The text wasn’t subtle. Addressed to “all citizens of the United States of America,” it read: “It is your civic duty to report any and all illegal aliens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They have broken the law.” There, underneath the text, was a phone number for ICE. “Have a nice day,” the poster closed.